Our post of earlier today about the giant, glossy, earth-insulting advertising insert for the Prius that came with our Sunday paper caught one reader's eye. He sends along the following photo and comment:
Appropos of your recent gripe with Toyota and its outsized (and eco-unfriendly) flyer for its new Prius, here's one from Comcast, which arrived in today's post. What's up with this new steroidical size? Did marketing people all get the same memo commanding them to conjure these carpet-size communiques and litter our inboxes with them? Maybe one of your marketing-type readers will know, but it utterly escapes me.
Comments (9)
Looks like it worked to me -- this guy not only opened it, but he got a picture of it posted on a well-read blog. They got their money's worth from that mailer, I'd say.
The thing that infuriates me is that Comcrap ignores the Direct Marketing Service "Do Not Mail" list and sends me something probably every other week, and when you call their 800 number and ask that they stop mailing you things, the person invariably says "I don't know how to do that" or they'll say "OK, sure, we'll take you off the list" and then nothing happens.
Apparently they think that, in this day and age, after all these years, someone without cable TV must just not know about it or must be on the fence, ready to take the plunge at any moment.
I'll light fires with my money before I give a penny of it to Comcrap, especially after the way they refuse to stop sending me adverts like that.
They spelled the name right and got their big selling proposition (the monthly come-on price) out there into peoples' brains.
Remember when Michael Deaver called the TV reporter to thank her for the great coverage of Ronnie Raygun on one of his speeches? The reporter, who had been quite critical of RR, was surprised and asked, "But Mike, did you hear the report?" He said "Oh sure, but the pictures were fantastic."
He knew. Pictures trump words. People rarely remember words, they remember feelings and impressions.
I can't tell if you're joking here or not: "Yada yada yada. This is Portland. The kind of people who can afford Comcast around here are smarter than that."
All I know is that Portland is full of people think that living in, as you say, the Whole Foods Bubble makes them smart -- as they pay a huge monthly bill for a cell phone, buy case loads of bottled water inferior to what comes from their taps, and who pay huge monthly bills for TV _and_ Internet and pay for a health club membership, which they drive to, while paying a lawn service.
I don't know who's dopier for continuing this pointless argument -- you or I. But I'll tell you this: The people in the Whole Foods bubble want recycled paper, soy inks, and the union label on their advertising. If they don't get it, they think bad things, not good.
Larger than any print advertising . . . the gloating, omniscient Chase commercials with the, "You're not alone" music. These guys scare the hell out of me and I am not comforted by that phrase or the image of a guy so "connected" that he can't even go camping without a laptop umbilical connection to Chase.
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Comments (9)
Looks like it worked to me -- this guy not only opened it, but he got a picture of it posted on a well-read blog. They got their money's worth from that mailer, I'd say.
The thing that infuriates me is that Comcrap ignores the Direct Marketing Service "Do Not Mail" list and sends me something probably every other week, and when you call their 800 number and ask that they stop mailing you things, the person invariably says "I don't know how to do that" or they'll say "OK, sure, we'll take you off the list" and then nothing happens.
Apparently they think that, in this day and age, after all these years, someone without cable TV must just not know about it or must be on the fence, ready to take the plunge at any moment.
I'll light fires with my money before I give a penny of it to Comcrap, especially after the way they refuse to stop sending me adverts like that.
Posted by George Anonymuncule Seldes | July 20, 2009 8:58 PM
They got their money's worth
Really? Seems dubious. Adverse publicity, with no mention of their message.
Posted by Jack Bog | July 20, 2009 9:01 PM
They spelled the name right and got their big selling proposition (the monthly come-on price) out there into peoples' brains.
Remember when Michael Deaver called the TV reporter to thank her for the great coverage of Ronnie Raygun on one of his speeches? The reporter, who had been quite critical of RR, was surprised and asked, "But Mike, did you hear the report?" He said "Oh sure, but the pictures were fantastic."
He knew. Pictures trump words. People rarely remember words, they remember feelings and impressions.
Posted by George Anonymuncule Seldes | July 20, 2009 9:25 PM
Yada yada yada. This is Portland. The kind of people who can afford Comcast around here are smarter than that.
Posted by Jack Bog | July 20, 2009 10:26 PM
COMCAST campaign contributions elected these politics.
COMCAST hates peace.
COMCAST loves war. It makes TV ratings.
Posted by Tenskwatawa | July 20, 2009 10:30 PM
I can't tell if you're joking here or not: "Yada yada yada. This is Portland. The kind of people who can afford Comcast around here are smarter than that."
All I know is that Portland is full of people think that living in, as you say, the Whole Foods Bubble makes them smart -- as they pay a huge monthly bill for a cell phone, buy case loads of bottled water inferior to what comes from their taps, and who pay huge monthly bills for TV _and_ Internet and pay for a health club membership, which they drive to, while paying a lawn service.
Posted by George Anonymuncule Seldes | July 20, 2009 11:17 PM
I don't know who's dopier for continuing this pointless argument -- you or I. But I'll tell you this: The people in the Whole Foods bubble want recycled paper, soy inks, and the union label on their advertising. If they don't get it, they think bad things, not good.
Posted by Jack Bog | July 20, 2009 11:23 PM
Larger than any print advertising . . . the gloating, omniscient Chase commercials with the, "You're not alone" music. These guys scare the hell out of me and I am not comforted by that phrase or the image of a guy so "connected" that he can't even go camping without a laptop umbilical connection to Chase.
Posted by NW Portlander | July 21, 2009 11:46 AM
Granted, the Comcast crap can be bothersome, but my rant is about the overabundance of Qwest promotions. They are everywhere.
It seems like they could lower their rates if they'd quit consuming so many trees for their promotional drivel.
___ora et labora___
-ob
Posted by oregbear | July 21, 2009 1:03 PM